


envy/pity/hatred

by taxicab12



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Gen, aka kevin day makes terrible first impressions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:22:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25842778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taxicab12/pseuds/taxicab12
Summary: Dan Wilds liked Kevin Day for exactly thirty seconds when they first met, and those thirty seconds just happened to correspond with the time it took him to open his mouth.
Relationships: Kevin Day & Danielle "Dan" Wilds
Kudos: 20





	envy/pity/hatred

Dan Wilds liked Kevin Day for exactly thirty seconds when they first met, and those thirty seconds just happened to correspond with the time it took him to open his mouth.

She did not tell him, judging his likely reaction quickly from the way he spoke to her, that she had once envied him. To the young girl she had been, the thought of living on nothing but Exy, with the cheers of the crowd always on your side, seemingly wanting for nothing had been an impossible fantasy, but that hadn’t stopped her from wanting it.

Dan Wilds didn’t do envy and she was a bit too practical now to speak such fantasies aloud, especially when she knew that Kevin Day hadn’t had the perfect life everyone said he’d had.

She also didn’t tell him, because it would cause an even worse reaction, that part of her pitied him. An unusable hand, far from everything he’d known as an assistant couch (though Wymack had briefly commented about when he healed—  _ if _ he healed...).

So, she ignored his rude comments, sticking out her hand. “Captain Dan Wilds. “

“I know who you are,” he said, and that was that.

...

They clashed. Of course they clashed. When it came to Exy, Dan was fairly certain Kevin Day had clashed with everyone who’d ever heard of the sport.

It probably didn’t help that he couldn’t play himself, forced to watch from the sidelines as they practiced again and again, never living up to his impossible standards.

Dan hated him, just a little, just sometimes. Because he had everything and he had nothing, because he had no right and every right to tell them what to do.

She did her best to keep the peace, but she wasn’t perfect. Sometimes it felt like she was captain of half a team, and Kevin certainly didn’t help with that.

She wondered what he would do if he couldn’t play again, though that worry faded with the passing days and weeks. She wondered if he’d be easier to get along with when he could play again.

He was not.

...

When Neil joined the Foxes, Dan saw the bridges he was building.

Kevin and his monsters (though really, they were Andrew’s, no matter how much she’d like to blame Kevin) stood on the other side of a divided team, never seeming bothered by this. There was nothing Dan could do about that; she was doing her best to rein in the Foxes she could control. But Neil wasn’t afraid of them and, even more than that, he gave Kevin hope.

When Dan realized how much this idea of Neil’s future meant to Kevin, her general annoyance with him faded, just a little. Almost enough to pity him again.

But not quite.

...

Baltimore.

Dan rarely let her thoughts stray from Neil while he was gone, but when they did, they often turned to Kevin.

She thought she might really hate him. She thought, while resisting the urge to scream into her pillow, that if Neil didn’t turn up alive she might never forgive him.

Kevin Day was a coward. Even Andrew had turned against him, having to be held back by three of them when he’d realized Neil was gone. She didn’t know the full story, not yet, but that was enough for her.

Neil lived. She forgave him that.

...

Everything else she had forgiven. Again and again she had let things go, but even she drew a line somewhere.

“Coach is Kevin's father,” Neil had said, as if it were that simple.

And Kevin had known for _years_. He’d been with the Foxes for nearly a year. How cruel did he have to be?

It was one thing to hurt the rest of them. But the coach was off limits.

She hated him, fairly certain it was for good this time.

...

Matt told her not to, but Dan thought about punching him in the face anyway. It would feel good, at least for a moment.

Kevin didn’t speak, and she couldn’t tell if that was a cruelty or a kindness.

“I’ve envied you,” she said. “I’ve pitied you, I’ve hated you. I... which one am I supposed to do now?”

Kevin opened his mouth, then closed it. “I don’t know.”

“Why didn’t you tell him?”

“Because there was no point. Then because it was dangerous. Because I was afraid.”

“And you’re not afraid anymore?”

“I didn’t say that.”

It was a start, at least. They sat there a while longer, being more open than they had ever been, then returned to the others to get drunk beyond all imagination.

It wasn’t hatred, probably. She could forgive him, maybe.

...

After they’d won against the Ravens, Kevin Day grinned at Dan, the sort of smile she’d never seen on his face.

She didn’t hate him.

Every once in a while, just a little, just sometimes, she almost liked him.

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly I just reread this series instead of sleeping last night and this just sorta happened


End file.
